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Topic: Tour of Japan (Read 14808 times)

Annie and I have decided that we will probably go to Japan next spring. JOJG/ Sukiya Living Magazine has their tour scheduled for Mid to end of May 2012. This is roughly the time frame we would like to go. Does anyone have experience with the JOJG Walking Tour of Kyoto? If you are uncomfortable for posting a review here please feel free to PM me. It looks like a lot of money on the surface but does include ground transportation and hotels. The tour is mostly of Kyoto but we would probably go a bit early or stay a bit late as we would like to go to Hiroshima and Mt Fuji and they are not part of the JOJG.

I have not had the privilege to participate in one of the Sukiya Living tours. I have, however, been to many of their pruning seminars. Doug and Tamao are passionate about the garden experience, and I believe you will gain much from their informed perspective. Someday, when our children are raised and finances allow, I hope they are still visiting and can include my wife and I.

Thanks James. I have been receiving JOJG / Sukiya Living for many years so an opportunity to tour with them does seem like a good idea. They are on tour in Kyoto right now I believe. I would like to get an idea from someone on the pacing etc. of the tour. I imagine they can get us in to a few spots that we would not get in to any other way.

Well, 6 months passes very quickly. Annie and I leave for Kyoto and the Sukiya Living Walking Tour tomorrow morning. It has been sort of surreal leading up to this point. I have been a fan of Japanese gardens and bonsai for many years so we will wake up Monday morning in the heart of it all. I would love to say that I will keep you updated on our progress but we have decided to go low tech on this tour and leave the phones behind. We want to immerse ourselves in the tour and the city and not have to worry about answering emails from relatives all evening when we get back to the hotel. Along with this loss comes our inability to make any posts here. I will have a full report when we get back. Not a wonderful day by day blog like Mary (Meiho) but I do promise a big report. I will be taking lots of pictures and hope to post them in a gallery when we get back. I am taking my iPad and have loaded Memoirs of a Geisha, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro so the 9 hour flight should pass very quickly. If our iPad can hook up to the internet there I may send greetings and let you know how it is going.Until we return,Ward

Ward, have a great time. Remember if it rains on you, the garden awakens. The ponds change personality in a rain too. Memorize the sounds, smells, everything you can while in the gardens. Even the birds and insect will have a new sound to you. Do not take so many pictures that you miss the views!

Well it's Friday morning here and the tour has officially ended. Annie are staying on a few extra days. If you are ever thinking about going on the Sukiya Living Walking Tour of Japan I have two simple words, do it! Douglas and Tamao are a well oiled machine when it comes to organizing the tour and the days events. You travel by subway, bus, train and taxi. You come out of a subway station and there are taxi's lined up ready for you to get in. They are experts at on the ground tour logistics. Douglas is able to get you in to places that you would never get into on a regular tour. Many of the places went had very little crowds. Annie just got here for breakfast so I will send more later.Ward

I have entered some of the photos of our trip over in the Gallery in an album Don created for me. This is only about the first half of the trip. I took around 1800 photos but only a small portion will end up in the gallery. If you ever get the chance to go on a tour with Doug and Tomao I would suggest you do it. I would go back again next week. In fact, had we not had things to come back for we could easily have stayed another two weeks or more. Kyoto is a beautiful place and I think we only scratched the surface of what can be seen there.Ward